TRAINING FOR HIKING TIPS

In this episode, I share an incredibly simple (but very effective) tip to help improve your performance during your training, hiking, and climbing.
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It might be basic, but you would be surprised how many mountaineers miss this! 

​Overuse injuries are a plague on the hiking community. Issues like plantar fasciitis, shin splints, hiker's knee and various forms of tendonitis are some of the most common problems hikers encounter (both in their training and their adventures).

While the specifics of overcoming particular injuries will change from injury to injury, several overarching ideas and principles can make a genuine difference in reducing the risk of overuse injuries. And that is what we explore in this video.

In this episode, I explore a simple approach a mountaineer can use to help maintain their fitness, strength and endurance, even if they don't have another adventure in their calendar for quite a while.

Many hikers out there go through periods of changing energy. Some days and weeks we are feeling normal. Some days and weeks we are feeling really flat.

This can be difficult enough to manage when we are just living day-to-day life and balancing out things like work, family and social life.

But if you are trying to fit in a full training program, this can get really tricky.

One tendency for many hikers in this situation is to fall into an 'all or nothing' approach.
 
Where they will either just grit their teeth and try to push through with their training (no matter how run down or flat they feel)...

Or they just entirely fall off the wagon with their training and do nothing during their low-energy periods.

Neither of these options is great.

I strongly encourage any hiker in this situation to take a bit more of a flexible approach.

To adapt and adjust their training around how they are feeling. 

So they can make the most out of the good periods. And be kind to their body and mind during the lower periods. But amongst it all, still maintain a consistent routine of training.

If you can do this, it can be incredibly powerful. 

To help with this, I want to share a simple training strategy I use with many of my hikers to help them find this balance.

This is how you do it:

​In part two of this discussion, I dive into some more detail of Allie Peppers's current training journey as she prepares to climb 8000m+ mountains without additional oxygen.

Inside, I share some insights into the training and workouts she has been using over the last months to prepare for her next expedition.